Not only WWE 97&99 = WCW 2000, it's also WWE97&99=Russo TNA era.
The whole Attitude Era during Russo was full of shock moments, constantly face and heel turns, swerves, shoot promos, sex, stables, people kayfabe quitting the company, nothing different than WCW 2000. It's not Russo's fault that some fans think that for example supernatural feuds in WWE like Kane vs Undertaker are cool but supernatural feuds in WCW and TNA Sting vs Vampiro or Sting vs Abyss are embarrassing or that the ending of the empty arena match between the Rock and Mankind was cool but a similar ending of a Nitro and Impact main event was pathetic.
A last rites match in 1998 between Kane and Undertaker would be praised still today but the same match on TNA between Sting and Abyss is bashed as typical Russo crappy booking

I posted numerous times here that Russo proved in WCW and TNA only one thing and that's that he was solely responsible for the style, storylines and the whole success of the Attitude Era because the style of the shows looked exactly the same like in the AE. It's not his fault that fans think that Vince McMahon vs Shane McMahon was cool but Ric Flair vs David Flair was boring. It's also not his fault that David was not charismatic as Shane to make the feud look better.